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Fig. 5 Turnout numbers. Tom numbered all the turnouts in his staging yards from 1 to 48 and used those numbers as the addresses for the stationary DCC decoders that control the switch motors. 12 11 10 Turnout DCC addresses 1 3 4 5 6 7 2 9 8 Track 13 Track 12 Track 11 Track 10 Track 9 Track 8 Track 7 Track 6 Track 5 Track 4 Track 3 Track 2 Track 1 25 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 26 Fig. 7: Sample routing for track 2. Some routes through Tom’s staging yards require lining more turnouts than the 10 handled by most DCC system macros. Power needs of the cameras vary by model. The most common power inputs are 24 volts (V) AC or 9-12V DC. My cameras use the latter, saving me the expense of purchasing an AC power source. They are powered by plug-in block transformers, rated at 300 milliamps; one such transformer is sufficient to power two cameras. When I first connected the cameras, I set the power supplies at 12V. I soon noticed that although the cameras were working fine, they were running hot; in fact, I could hardly touch them. When I discovered this I switched the power supplies to 9V. The cameras still worked well, but barely got warm. Micro-board video cameras are so small and light that they’re a breeze to mount. I noted the mounting holes at the corners of the PC boards and determined I could attach the cameras to the floor joists running along my basement ceiling. Figure 4, shot with a digital camera, shows the angle of view of camera 1. For testing, I affixed them with pushpins, which worked so well that I just left them that way. Automating switch operation On a railroad that uses DCC, like my Lakeside Lines, there are simple solutions that let you remotely align entire routes at once. I equipped all of my turnouts with Tortoise motors, though any switch motor or machine would work. I gave each turnout a unique DCC accessory address, physically writing this number beside each switch motor with a black felt-tip marker, as in fig. 5. Most DCC systems allow accessory addresses from 1 to 2,048, so I simply numbered my first turnout 1 and kept going to 48. Next, I installed Digitrax DS64 sta- tionary decoders, like the one in fig. 6, to run the switch motors in the staging area. One reason I chose the DS64 is that it can use an auxiliary power source to operate the turnouts, and I wanted all my DCC track bus power available for running trains. Not only can each decoder operate four switch motors independently, but they can also be programmed so that the position of one of the motors can affect the position of the remaining three. 62 Model Railroader • www.ModelRailroader.com Track 1 (main line) Fig. 6 Turnout control. Tom uses Digitrax DS64 stationary DCC decoders to control the switch motors in his staging yards. Each can control four devices. He labels each port with the number of the turnout it controls. The decoder’s macro function lets him line multiple turnouts once. Programming macros The final step in automating my staging switches was to write macros to operate a sequence of turnouts in response to a single command. A macro is a list of accessory-decoder addresses, along with instructions to open or close each listed accessory when the macro number is executed. Most full-featured DCC systems let you build macros of up to 10 commands, which can operate 10 different accessories at once. This is sufficient to handle routings for most staging yards. Using track numbers for the macro addresses makes them easy to remember. In most DCC systems, macros can be programmed by opening the macro programming screen (see the instructions for your particular system), typing in the macro number, then entering a list of accessory addresses and their desired positions when the macro is executed. Once this is done, you simply push the macro button on your DCC controller, followed by the track number, and the entire route will be automatically aligned. Unfortunately, my two staging yards have so many turnouts that aligning 10 at once was often not enough. Figure 7 shows the simplified track arrangement for my West Staging Yard, along with the path that would be followed by a train being routed through track 2. Opening this route requires aligning 20 turnouts! More on our Web site Visit the Information Station and save 30% on Guide to helix and staging design. Download this helpful package of articles now fromModelRailroader. com/infostation.